Posts Tagged ‘SandSations’

SandSations, in Long Beach, Washington, was voted #1 Best Sand Castle contest in the USA by Coastal Living Magazine! The sand sculpture weekend is coming right up on July 20th-24th. Boreas still has rooms available if you would like to build castles and sculptures or if you simply enjoy marveling at the artistry of the masters, watching teams working together to achieve a goal and learn how the process works. I used to participate in the Cannon Beach competition for around 12 years and my team used to place #1 in our sand sculpting masters category. We sculpted completely by hand. We were consistently top prize winners–that is, until this group of architects from Seattle were added to our category and used sophisticated forms and packing devices…and we didn’t always place first after that. (Coincidentally, we had one of those Seattle architect/sand sculptors as a guest at the Inn!) But talking about immediate gratification–you take a plot of sand, dig up a pile, decide who on your team does what well (I’m good at packing, making hands and letters) then together, the team works magic and achieves a goal within hours. Nothing artificial…just sand and water. It is wonderful! We used to finish off our plots with perfectly smooth borders and beautifully worked lettering. I haven’t seen anything to match our fine finish work anywhere. We usually constructed the sculpture with a theme that was based upon a pun. We were so good and getting a blue ribbon was the icing on the cake. Our Captain’s mother, Betty Lou Tolan was the founder of the contest in Cannon Beach in the early 60’s. The party to celebrate our achievement afterward was always the best time of the year. Ah… those were the days.

This contest in Long Beach awards cash to the winners. We got only ribbons at Cannon Beach and maybe a printed certificate. It didn’t matter. The intensity of taking on a project with sand and sea water and coming up with a fine sculpture was reward enough. SandSations is a great event here in Long Beach, Washington and it’s growing every year. You can experience the great hospitality at Boreas Inn, dine on our feast at breakfast time, walk our trail to the beach and watch the SandSations competition! So come to the beach for a long weekend, July 21-24!